Gateacre

Gateacre is an affluent suburb of Liverpool, England, about 6mi from the city centre. It is bordered by Childwall, Woolton and Belle Vale. The area is noted for its Tudor Revival architecture and contains over 100 listed buildings within a quarter-mile radius of the village centre, making it one of the most important historic areas in the city.Gateacre can trace its roots back to at least the 12th century, although it was not until the mid-seventeenth century that the name was first used to refer to the area. It remained a primarily rural village until the nineteenth century, when it began to grow rapidly as new transport links and businesses developed. Gateacre was officially adsorbed into Liverpool in 1913, however it was not until the post-war period that it became part of city's metropolitan area. In the 1950s and 1960s, large scale housing developments occurred in and around Gateacre, while a new comprehensive school and shopping centre were built. In 1969, in order to protect the area's historic buildings, Gateacre was declared a conservation area, becoming one of the first in Liverpool.HistoryToponymyThe name Gateacre was first used in the mid-16th century to refer to the area that had previously been part of the townships of 'Little' and 'Much' Woolton. The origin of the name is not fully known, although there are two parallel theories on where it may have come from. The first explanation suggests that the name may derive from 'gata' - meaning path or 'the way' in Middle English - to the 'acre field' of Much Woolton . An alternative suggestion is that the name may have developed from the Anglo-Saxon term gāt-æcer, which means a "newly cultivated plot where goats are kept".